This invigorating Flemish city is called Gent in Dutch, Ghent in English, Gand in French and Gante in Spanish. The Spanish ruled Flanders for many years, which is why they have their own names for some of the cities. The Spanish King Charles V in fact was born in Gante Read More …
The two Flemish cities of Antwerp and Ghent have a joint opera company, the Flemish Opera (Vlaamse Opera), which presents the same opera productions in both cities. Since Antwerp is a bigger city it tends to have a few more performances of each opera. I haven’t been to any performances Read More …
When I was in Ghent (= Gent, Gante or Gand), a lot of the bicycles had little signs on them reading “Weer een Auto Minder”, which means: Again one less car. Or: Another car less. Or, for us older folks: Another car fewer. (When I was in school, were taught Read More …
Since I had arrived too late in the evening to take a canal boat tour in Brugge a couple days before, I was determined to take one in Ghent. So I went over to the dock at the Vleeshuisbrug Groentenmarkt and took the next boat that was leaving. This happened to Read More …
In the nineteenth century, Flemish nationalists scoured the history books in search of a national hero. For some reason they settled on Jacob van Artevelde (1290-1345), a wealthy textile merchant and politician who was more of less the dictator of Ghent for the last decades of his life. He was Read More …
In the song Marieke by Jacques Brel (1929-1978), the two Flemish cities of Brugge and Gent are linked together over and over by their French names, because the song is about a love affair that took place “between the towers of Bruges and Gand”. Ay Marieke Marieke je t’aimais tant Read More …
Like most things in Ghent, the Monasterium PoortAckere has a long history. It was founded in the year 1278 (or earlier) as a beguine house and was used for various religious purposes until the time of the French Revolution, when it was confiscated by the town council. In 1863 the Read More …
These young people in red T-shirts, from various European countries, were doing some sort of project in Ghent for a summer school that they were on. They wanted to ask me some questions in English about European integration and also wanted to take my picture, which I said was fine Read More …
You don’t need a dictionary to know what “Wildplassen” means. If they catch you doing it in Ghent, you’ll be fined sixty Euros. As you can see from the sign, the rule applies equally to both sexes. This is quite a stiff penalty, considering that the fine for the same Read More …